Somehow this Derek Jeter affair has unfolded in such a sloppy way that there’s actually a chance now that he won’t be the Yankees’ shortstop next year.

It is still a long shot, maybe. A very long shot, perhaps.

C’mon, this is Derek Jeter after all!

It’s not Alex Rodriguez.

Jeter was the true company man, the guy who forged a guaranteed Hall of Fame career in the white light of New York City without once being caught in anything approaching an embarrassing situation.

No game-day sunbathing in Central Park for the Yankees captain, or embarrassing high-stakes poker nights at places baseball players are supposed to avoid.

No cavorting around strip clubs with the establishment talent, or being mentored by Madonna in the art of, well, whatever.

Jeter wasn’t like that.

He did just about all his talking on the field; plenty of it in postseason. He is a Gold Glove shortstop who hit over .320 seven times so far in his career, and who has a reputation as one of the truly extraordinary clutch players of his time.

For those reasons, Jeter is the undisputed fan favorite of the past half-century in the Bronx, the player who actually stirred the drink that brought four championships during the Joe Torre era.

MISGUIDED SONS

He had a big hand in transforming the franchise into a legitimate money machine, while making $200 million-plus in salary.

For all of that over the past 16 seasons, the new ownership duo had this to say in regard to Jeter prior to contract negotiations even beginning:

"There’s always the possibility things could get messy ... we’re running a business here," said Hal Steinbrenner.

"Some of these players are wealthier than their bosses," observed Hank Steinbrenner.

That last statement, uttered just a few days ago, is something that says a whole lot about the new Yankees’ regime, and it is nothing good.

The Steinbrenners don’t want to be taking a real poll anywhere on this planet asking the question of who has most earned the money they’ve received out of the New York Yankees baseball franchise, because a sure bet is the answer won’t be the sons who inherited the colossally thriving business.

And that’s so no matter what kind of spin some of the organization’s media friends are putting on things.

The Steinbrenner response is the sort of chesty, overblown bluster that has sent the Jeter negotiations spinning in a dangerous direction.

And now there is at least a possibility that he will leave the Bronx, that he’ll turn down the Yankee offer, which, so far at least, is a not-very-negotiable $45 million over three seasons.

It is still a long shot, perhaps.

But it is possible.

And relationships between the player and the organization will never be the same, no matter the end result of all this.

Not even if Jeter comes back.

What did the Yankees feel they had to gain with their approach?

Who knows?

ULTERIOR MOTIVES

People who are full of themselves say strange things. Maybe it really is a sincerely held position of the Steinbrenners that Derek Jeter has gotten all he deserves. Perhaps they think they’ve overpaid him already.

"Some of these players are wealthier than their bosses," is a complaint that says an awful lot to me.

Or maybe it’s more about setting the stage to deal with 28-year-old rising star second baseman Robinson Cano, whose contract has just one more year on it, and who will be looking closely at how much the Yankees are willing to pay a player who is eight years his senior and who hit almost 50 points lower than he did this year.

Or maybe Hank and Hal Steinbrenner think this is the way they put their stamp on the franchise, a strategy to convey to all the hired help a clear message about who’s in charge. Maybe they’re on a crusade for the baseball owners in general, a pushback at the union. Only they know for certain why they’ve taken the route they have.

But they did.

And Derek Jeter is not a happy guy. He’s unhappy enough, perhaps, to take a walk.

And the bottom line is the Yankees can’t allow that to happen. They have to fix the situation.

CAN’T LOSE HIM

It would be bad baseball business to let Jeter sign with another team. For starters, they have no one to replace him at shortstop or in the lead-off spot. Secondly, it would be a public-relations nightmare and huge distraction that would carry through the 2011 season and perhaps beyond.

Jeter may not be Jeter anymore. What ballplayer is at his age?

And on a totally unemotional level, he might not deserve the $45 million the Yankees have offered. The Yankees captain may even have been a little too sensitive about the way the negotiations have been handled.

But let Jeter go, then miss the playoffs, and see what Yankees fans will think of H&H Steinbrenner.

The cost of that will far outweigh anything the Yankees are trying to save in the Jeter contract.

I’m betting it would still take a gigantic screw-up all the way around for Jeter to be somewhere else in April.

But, after the past two weeks, it does appear at least a slim possibility.